Saturday, July 9, 2005

A beautifully clear and sunny high desert weekend greeted the throng of small-bore racers and their crews for this latest round of Honda Challenge. There were also some hot babes in attendance that almost caused the unflappable race director John Lindsey some difficulty trying to conduct a serious drivers meeting on Saturday. She was wearing a low cut....anyway, back to the race report.

On Saturday, there were eight H4 cars and two H1 cars to start the day. One H4 car, driven by yours truly, windowed the block during practice after only a few laps. Sorry guys about the oil slick in turns 8 and 9. Anyway, Edik Stepanyan and his trusty DA Integra qualified on the pole with a 1:36.0 with Steve Ellsworth and his CRX taking outside pole with a 1:36.6 and Rick Hohwart in his EG taking the inside row two starting position. Dennis Caco took the pole in H1 with Paul Bloomberg in second. The H4 race was a battle from the start with Edik and Steve dicin' and slicin' up the competition from the green flag. Unfortunately for Steve, he flatted a left front after three laps and his race was run. Edik stayed comfortably in the lead with Rick taking second. Rookie Sam Rothschild was in third but he ran low on gas and would eventually have to give up third on the last lap to Miguel Escobar. Those would be the finishing positions with Sam getting fourth. In H1, Dennis Caco of Autocannon-SGR racing took the win wire-to-wire followed by Paul Bloomberg from Arizona in second.

Sunday, July 10

Instead of a regular qualifying session, the grid positions would be determined by a qualifying race. Edik Stepanyan claimed the top spot and started on pole. And, once again, Steve Ellsworth would be bridesmaid and Rick Hohwart would start third. The race would begin as a three car duel between Edik, Steve, and Rick with Edik leading. Steve and Edik would swap the lead, but eventually the DA horsepower would win out leaving Steve to stay on Edik's rear bumper for the nearly the entire race. Unfortunately, with about three laps to go, Edik's usually reliable DA belched a big puff of blue smoke in turn five and the resulting oil stream left on the track caused Steve to fly off on the outside of turn five. The smoke was the result of a faulty drain plug and Edik didn't realize it until he got all the way back to turn 3 where he spun in his own oil effectively ending his day. Steve recovered in third and kept going and then wound up in second place after Edik's exit. During this lap, Rick graciously accepted the lead and soon afterwards the course was put under a full-course yellow flag. Within another lap, the race was red-flagged due to oil on the track and the finishing positions would be Rick in first, Steve in second, and Sam Rothschild with a fuller fuel tank today in third.

H1

The field would gain a car for today's race with the addition of Bernardo Martinez in his CRX with a special D16 frankenstein motor. In the qualifying race, Dennis would get the lead and Bernardo quickly went from last to second. On lap two, Bernardo would come into the pits due to overheating that seemed to caused by a malfunctioning thermostat. Dennis kept the lead the rest of the way and Paul Bloomberg would end up second.

In the race, Dennis led with Bernardo and his freshly gutted thermostat moving from last to second. On lap two, with his car overheating again, Bernardo would have to call it quits. Paul inherited second and this would be how they finished.